


All It Takes

by cathRN26



Category: Welcome to Hell - All Media Types
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Robots & Androids, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Androids, Angst, Café, Criminal Investigation, Cyborgs, Everyone's alive, Experiments, Fixing stuff, How Do I Tag, Investigations, M/M, Mechanic Jonathan, Mechanic Sock, Mystery, Police, Repairs, Robots, Sci-Fi, building, futuristic AU, idk how to tag things sorry, inventing, kind of, workshop
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-29
Updated: 2018-06-05
Packaged: 2019-05-15 19:13:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 18,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14796332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cathRN26/pseuds/cathRN26
Summary: Everything is a little broken.As the local mechanic, it’s Jonathan’s job to fix any androids in need of a repair.  But when he’s given a new assistant, Sock helps him to realize that maybe he needs a bit of fixing, too.





	1. All

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've never really written a fanfic with canon characters before bc I'm lame and usually only write OC's so feedback would be really appreciated! Really hope this doesn't completely suck. This idea just popped in my head and I've been trying to write it for like a week now that school is done since I haven't written anything for like months. It starts off a pretty choppy and incoherent but I promise I'll try to make it clearer as it progresses. I didn't really know where/how to start it off but hopefully it'll start coming together soon.
> 
> Also I don't know anything about mechanical repairs so don't think too hard about anything. I kind of fudged most of the android talk AKA I have no idea what I'm doing and this is a mess.

The building was awfully quiet that day.  The only sounds to be heard were the whirring of a power-drill and the slight tapping of metal, the usual hustle-and-bustle lost.  Everyone was gone for the weekend, off to the comfort of their own homes after a hard week of work.  Some were still in shock of the recent broadcast regarding a dreadful incident that occurred only an hour away in a quaint little town housing no more than two-hundred people.

_“Couple Found as Victims of a Double-Homicide”_

It was the seventh iteration of the story that Jonathan had seen in the past week.  The murder – a two-week-old crime that had still yet to be solved – was all the media had been reporting lately.  Everyone within a hundred-mile radius had already heard the tale of how the unsuspecting couple was brutally stabbed to death and buried in their own backyard, makeshift headstones marked “Mom” and “Dad”.  The mystery read that the couple didn’t have any children and lived alone in the house.

The headline graced the TV screen playing in the room while Jonathan worked silently at the metal table at the center of the room.  He groaned as he pried open the chest cavity of an android that in dire need of repair and got to work poking around the bundles of wires and cables.  Sweat beaded down his forehead as time stretched on.  After all, it was getting quite late into the afternoon and he still hadn’t taken a lunch break yet.  It was long overdue, but he was determined to fix up the android before leaving to eat.

A distant voice was heard from the hallway.  Jonathan perked up, being able to recognize that Jersey-accent from a mile away.  The only thing left to figure out was who the voice was talking to.

 _I wonder who’s coming in at this hour_ , he thought.  The work day was practically half over for him and those who took the night-shift didn’t come in until five.

The voice neared and its words became more comprehensible.  “So, Mr. Sowachowski, you’ll work nine-to-five, five days a week, right here in this lovely establishment.  You’ll be assisting our repair team with fixing up damaged androids, service bots, and things of the like.”

A gentle knock on the door of Jonathan’s workshop resonated through the room before the door creaked open to reveal the building manager, Mephistopheles.  “Hey, Combs, just checking in.  Say, shouldn’t you be at lunch right about now?” asked the man at the door.

“I’m actually not supposed to be working today at all, but I wanted to finish this project first,” Jonathan said.  “The lady who brought this thing in kept nagging to have it fixed.  The cooling fan is broken so her home-droid has been out of commission for the past three days.”

“What, the lady can’t do her own chores while it’s getting fixed?”

“Guess not.”  Jonathan turned back to the android, adjusting his goggles to sit more comfortably on his nose.  Grease smeared his face and his hair was slick with sweat and oil, combed back from the stress-induced habit of running his hands through it during work.

Mephistopheles muffled a slight chuckle at the sight with his arms crossed over his chest.  “Anyways, you probably know I’m not here just to badger you about some random home-droid, right?”

The young man grunted as he managed to detach the misshapen fan blade from the droid’s interior.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” his boss said in a chipper tone.  “Combs, meet your new assistant handyman, Mr. Napoleon Sowachowski.”

Jonathan finally glanced up from his work to see another person standing in the doorway, waving excitedly.  He had come prepared to start upon his immediate arrival, implied by the toolbox hanging loosely from his fingers and the already-stained clothes he wore.  The strangest thing about him seemed to be the bright red hat he wore, a shiny pair of golden goggles resting on top.

“Nice to meet you!” the young man said, extending a hand.  “I’m looking forward to working with you.  It’s Jonathan, right?  Meph here told me about you already.”

“Yeah…” Jonathan said uneasily.  He made no effort to accept the hand held out for him.  “Thanks, but I don’t need an assistant – Mister, uh – What is it again?”

“Napoleon Sowachowski,” he said, not missing a beat, “but you can call me Sock.”

“Look, Jon, you’re working yourself too hard,” Mephistopheles said.  “You can deny it all you want, but of all my employees, you’re the one who could use an assistant the most.  And trust me, this guy here is exactly what this company needs!”  He grabbed Sock by the shoulders and gave him a slight shake.  “The kid’s a certified genius with this android stuff.  Hell, I even learned a thing or two from him, and I’ve been in the business for what feels like an eternity!”

Sock’s exaggerated smile faltered.  “Come on, Jonathan, just give me a chance.  I won’t bother you too much, and I’ll try to stay out of your way.  I really need this job.”

Jonathan looked between his boss and the newly recruited worker in front of him, trying to decide what to do.  Eventually, he resigned with a sigh.  “Fine, but you better not distract me or anything.”

The over-enthusiasm returned to Sock’s face.  “Thank you!  I promise I won’t be a distraction at all!” he yelled, bouncing towards Jonathan with a constricting hug.  His arms wrapped around his new colleague a bit too tightly, and he quickly backed off once he sensed the discomfort he was causing.  “Sorry, got a little excited there!”  He rubbed his arm awkwardly, tugging on the sleeve of his shirt.

“It’s fine,” Jonathan reassured, still a little unsettled by the surprising physical contact.  Mephistopheles sent him a mischievous smirk and a raised eyebrow, out of sight from Sock.  He cleared his throat nervously before continuing.  “Since you’re here, take over with this droid repair.  I’m going to lunch.”

~~~~~

When he returned, Mephistopheles was gone and Sock was hunched over the worktable, his goggles pulled over his eyes and his had discarded at the counter.  His auburn hair stuck up in all different directions, seeming to defy gravity.

Jonathan stifled a laugh at the sight of his ridiculous hairdo, alerting Sock of his presence.  “That is by far the _worst_ case of hat-hair I have ever seen.”

“The joke’s on you!” Sock retorted.  “This is my natural hair.”  For comedic effect, he dramatically flipped his bangs out of his face.

“Well, that’s unfortunate.”

Jonathan threw his things onto the counter beside Sock’s and approached the worktable.  As he grew closer, concern overtook his features.

“This isn’t the droid I told you to fix,” he pointed out.  “Where’s the home-droid I left earlier?”

“Hm?”  Sock looked up from his work, setting his goggles on his head with a loud _thwack_.  “Which one?”

“The one I was working on before I left.”

A spark of recognition lit up in his eyes.  “Oh!  The XSA-47 model with home and self-defensive capabilities?”

Jonathan blinked in surprise at how he was able to identify the droid model.  “Uh, yeah, it was a special-make with silver accents.  Do you have it?”

“Of course!”  Sock led him to the back of the room where other androids were separated into two sections: repaired and in need of repair.  In the repaired section stood the aforementioned android, powered-down but now in perfect working condition.  Sock patted the android on the shoulder, admiring his own handiwork.  “Fixed her up about ten minutes after you left.  I even wrapped her up all nice to deliver.”  He gestured to the bright red ribbon which he tied into a bow around the droid’s neck.

“‘Her’?” Jonathan noticed.  “Why did you call it a ‘her’?”

Sock gave him a confused look.  “What do you mean?  Just look at her; the form and shape of the body suggests that she was made to resemble a human female.  So, she’s a ‘her’.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Jonathan snorted.  “It’s an android.  They’re not male or female; they’re metal.”  He walked back to the worktable to take a look at the new android Sock had begun.  “Just call it a robot and be done with it.”

As Jonathan pulled his headphones over his ears, he faintly heard Sock’s voice before being deafened by the music.

“No need to be so rude about it,” he mumbled, joining his coworker at the table.

~~~~~~

“’Sup, Jonathan.  Brought your lunch.”

A young purple-haired woman in a thick green jacket entered the workshop carrying a brown paper bag.  She reached her hand into the bag and pulled out a neatly wrapped sandwich, giving it to Jonathan.

“Thanks, Lil.  You can sit over at the counter.”

Sock sat at the counter already, waving as he patted the seat next to him.  He was occupying himself by tugging on an elastic band, knotting and unknotting it between his fingers while Jonathan worked.  His right hand was shaking and he was trying to give it a bit of gentle exercise to get it to work again.

“Oh, who’s this?” Lil asked curiously.  She sat down beside Sock and began to unwrap her own sandwich, crumpling and tossing the bag into the waste bin.  Sock opened his mouth to introduce himself, but he was quickly interrupted.

“Just an assistant Meph hired for me.  I didn’t ask for one, but he insisted.”  He pulled off his oil-slicked gloves and threw them aside, heading for the sink to rinse his hands.

“Just call me Sock!”  A hand was held out to Lil, and she graciously accepted it.

“Cool,” she noted, munching on her lunch.  “When did you get here?  I assume you were hired pretty recently.”

Sock shrugged.  “About a week and a half.”

Lil nearly choked on her sandwich.  “A week and a half?  Where have I been, living under a rock?”  She rewrapped her sandwich and set it aside.  “Why haven’t I seen you in the cafeteria before?  I spend like way too much time in there and I haven’t seen you once.”

“I prefer to eat alone,” Sock said, scratching the back of his head.  “Cafeterias are too crowded for me.”

“That’s something we have in common,” Jonathan said, pulling over a stool to sit with the others.  “I don’t know why you like it so much in the cafeteria, Lil.  A hundred people crammed into a single space waiting for food is pretty uncomfortable.”

“Come on, it’s not that bad.  You’re surrounded by all the different smells of food.”

Jonathan removed the plastic wrap from his own sandwich and took a generous bite.  He was starving after spending a morning hard at work.  “Hey, Sock, aren’t you going to eat?”

Sock hugged his arms, squirming restlessly in his chair.  “No, I’m fine,” he said with a smile.  “I’m not hungry.  I’ll eat later when our shift ends.”

“You haven’t eaten all day,” Jonathan pointed out.  “Our shift doesn’t end for four hours.”

“Here,” Lil offered, “take some of my sandwich.  I can get another one on my way out.”

“Don’t worry about it.  I had a big breakfast,” Sock reassured.  He hopped out of his chair and brushed off his hands, slipping on the gloves tucked away in the pocket of his overalls.  “I’ll just busy myself while you two eat.”  He picked up right where Jonathan left off, humming mindlessly to himself to pass the time.

Lil beckoned for Jonathan to come closer.  When he leaned in, she whispered into his ear.  “Does he normally do this?” she asked, referring to Sock’s meal skipping.

“I don’t know.  Now that I think about it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him eat.”

The watched with discomfort as Sock worked, noticing how his screwdriver occasionally fell helplessly from his trembling hand.

~~~~~

The door to the workshop swung open as Sock entered the room, whistling and skipping over to the center table.  “Morning, partner!” he said cheerily.

“Sock, you’re supposed to be my assistant,” Jonathan said sarcastically, leaving out the fact that he had begun to consider them partners anyways.

“Oh, please, I do more than half the work around here.”  As he went to put his stuff on the counter, he felt a soft tap on his shoulder.

Jonathan held out a paper bag, the words “For Sock” written sloppily on the front in black marker.  “I noticed you never bring anything to eat,” he said.  “It’s not much – just a sandwich and some water – but I figured I’d put together something for you.  As a thank you.”

Sock stared at the bag with shock, unsure of what to say.  “A thank you for what?” he eventually managed, his voice barely audible.

“For helping me.  I know I didn’t want an assistant at first, but I’m really glad you’re here.”  A touch of color rose to his cheeks.

Neither of them moved a muscle: Jonathan stood with his arm still extended, shaking the longer he had to hold it up, while Sock clutched his right hand tightly with his left.  After what felt like forever, the standstill was broken and Sock reached out slowly to take the bag.  His trembling hand managed firmly grasped the parcel and he brought it close to his chest, opening it and observing the contents.  A small laugh escaped his thin lips and he looked up at Jonathan with gratitude radiating off his features like light from the sun.

“I really appreciate this, Jonathan,” he said, laugh-lines appearing as his grin spread wider and wider.  “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Jonathan replied.  His breath was swept out of him.

He never noticed how bright Sock’s eyes were.  They reminded him of the beauty of spring, when the golden sunlight reflected off the grass rippling in the breeze.

~~~~~

“I can’t believe you guys are still on that case,” Lil grumbled.  “It’s been over a month.  The killer of that couple is probably long gone by now.”

“It’s my job.  I can’t really complain much to Providence, or she’ll have my ass,” Jojo said, tugging on one of her blond pigtails.

Jonathan swirled the contents of his cup with a straw, watching the ice spin in a mini whirlpool.  It served as a decent distraction from the bustling café they sat in.  “You guys really don’t have any leads?”

“None.  Zip.  Zero.”  Jojo slammed a hand on the table.  “This is crazy!  In all my years of crime investigation, I’ve never seen anything like this.  No fingerprints, no organic traces, nothing!  It’s like a ghost committed the murder and left us to search for the nonexistent perpetrator.”

“Maybe you need a break from the case.”

“What I need is a break _in_ the case.”

“I hate to be rude and all, but can we steer the conversation away from the topic of murder?” Lil suggested.

Jonathan agreed wholeheartedly.  “Yeah, it’s clear that this mystery has you really riled up.  You should probably try not to think about it for a while.”

Jojo shrugged her shoulders, resting her arms and chin on the table.  “I think you’re right.  How about we talk about one of you guys for now?  Lil, what are you up to?”

The girl let out an exasperated groan.  Perhaps she wasn’t the best person to ask.

“Meph has the whole experimental department trying to develop a humor setting for the newer android models.  It’s absurd,” she said, taking a big swig of coffee.

“Doesn’t sound so bad,” Jonathan said.  “Wouldn’t you want to crack a joke with your android every once in a while?”

“First, I don’t own an android.  And second, if I did, I don’t think my priority would be whether or not it understands my jokes.  We’ve already got something in the works for it, but so far, we can only get the androids to exhibit sarcasm, but they lack the ability to change their tone of voice like humans do.  It’s hard to tell when they’re serious or not.  They only understand jokes after they’re explained and any other kind of humor just flies right over their central processing units.”

Jojo rolled her eyes.  “Androids are demons,” she mumbled.

“How so?” Jonathan asked.  “You have a bad run-in with one at the store or something?”

“I don’t know, it’s just – What’s so great about them?”

“They can accomplish what we can’t as humans,” Jonathan explained.

“No,” Jojo said.  “They accomplish what we _don’t want_ to do as humans.  They do what we’re too _lazy_ to do.  They do all our bidding while we sit on our fat asses watching TV and eating junk food.  The only reason they exist is for comfort and convenience.  People survived just fine without them.  We should go back to that.”

Lil frowned.  “Why are you so against giving humans a break with androids?  And I’m not just saying that because I’d be out of a job without them.”

“People are dangerous enough as it is.  We don’t need all these androids to add to that.”

“Androids aren’t dangerous,” Jonathan said.  In all his life, he had never seen or heard anything about an android disobeying orders or turning on its masters.  There were far less android-related casualties compared to human-inflicted ones.

“If people are dangerous, then so are androids.  Who do you think made them?”  Jojo checked the time on her watch and sighed.  She stood to leave, grabbing her coffee before saying a few final words.

“We’re lucky those bastards aren’t programmed to learn the way we do.  Otherwise we’d all be dead.”

~~~~~

An errand-droid was found in disrepair in a dumpster that night, suspected to have been attacked on a run to the grocery store.  Its chest had been ripped open, the wires cut up and in disarray.  The metal neck was bent at a ninety-degree angle, twitching every so often from the damage, and its right arm was ripped clean off.  The white metal plating over the body of the droid was scuffed and cracked.  When police and investigators checked for the memory card connected to the droid’s video recorder, the card was nowhere to be seen.  The culprit got away clean with no clues as to who it may be.

The broken android was sent to Jonathan and Sock immediately, who were both called in on an emergency repair.  The droid belonged to a wealthy family on the more expensive side of town and demanded that their property be fixed at once.

“I can’t believe we’re working on a Sunday at three in the morning,” Jonathan said with a yawn.  He didn’t even have the chance to get properly dressed.

Sock ran a hand through his messy locks, but he appeared in much better condition that his partner.  He was just as awake and lively as usual.  “Trust me, I’d rather be home, too, but look at this!”  He pointed to the mangled droid in front of him.  “I’ve been looking for more of a challenge than our usual repairs.”

“Sock, this is going to take hours to fix.  Half of the thing isn’t even there anymore.”

“I think it’s a guy,” Sock corrected.

“Not this again.”

Ever since the small argument on their first day together, Sock had made it a point to identify every android that crossed their workshop.  Whether it was male, female, androgynous, agender – he somehow managed to identify each and every one.  When asked how he knew, Sock only laughed.

“Of course, I don’t actually know,” he admitted.  “I know they’re androids and I know they can’t decide for themselves.  I like to give them an identity because it makes them seem more human.  I like to think that they’re no different than humans.”

“But they are,” Jonathan said.

Sock never replied.

Pacing around the workspace, Jonathan tried to think of how best to repair the android.  New metal would need to replace the broken plating on the outside.  It would take at least a day before the metal pieces could be properly cut, but that was a later issue.  First, they would have to repair the inside.  At least a third of the cables would need to be rewired throughout, and that meant reconnecting the touch sensors and nerve systems.  It was a hassle, but it had to be done.  They would need to be careful –

Jonathan shifted his gaze to the table as he heard clattering of metal.  Sock stood over the android, yanking out wire after wire and tearing off the metal sheets from the droid’s body.

“Sock!  What are you doing?!” Jonathan ran over and grabbed his wrist, stopping him as he pulled out another bundle of wiring.

“Cleaning up a bit.  We need to open up the space to scope out the damage,” Sock said.

“You’re causing _more_ damage!”

Sock scoffed.  “No, I’m not.  I’m just pulling out what’s already broken.  Trust me, these wires are beyond repair.”  He tossed them off to the side where they skidded loudly across the floor.

“It’s not _our_ android, so we can’t be so careless with it.  And for God’s sake, Sock, put on some gloves.”

“Only real men are brave enough to work without gloves,” he teased.  He yanked off a panel of metal that was meant to shield the chest cavity, using only his bare hands.  Like the wires, the metal was discarded and met the floor with a _clang_.

Jonathan stared at the remains of the android.  “You’re fucking crazy.”

Sock smiled.  “I know.”

~~~~~

It had become a habit for Jonathan to bring two lunches everyday: one for him and one for Sock.

“You don’t have to do this, Jonathan,” Sock told him after the fourth attempt.  “Once was enough.  I’m really grateful, but I don’t want to bother you.”

“If you don’t want to be a bother, then just take it.”

He accepted the food reluctantly, and that was enough for Jonathan.

After working alongside Sock for nearly a month, he still didn’t know him very well.  He knew he was from out of town, that he lived alone, and that he had a weird vendetta against eating in public, but other than that, he was a mystery to him.  He didn’t even know how old he was.

“Hey, Sock?”  The other man nodded to signal he was listening while he continued to weld some metal plating together.  “How old are you?”

That was when he met Jonathan’s eyes.  Those pools of bright green searched for something within him and he gulped nervously from the tension.  “Why do you want to know?”

“I don’t know that much about you.  I figured I should start learning.”

Sock set down the welder he was using and pulled up his goggles.  A goofy grin took up half of his face.  “Would you like to get to know me better?”

“That’s what I’m going for,” Jonathan said sarcastically.

“Hah!”  Sock shook his head as he continued to smile, wiping the grease from his face.  “How old do you think I am?”

“Like, twenty, at most.”

The man snorted.  “I’m twenty-three.”

Jonathan’s eyes widened.  “You’re kidding me!  You look like you’re sixteen.  I was pushing it when I said twenty.”

“How old are you?”

“Twenty-one.”

Sock picked up a metal hand that they had yet to reattach.  He cleaned off some oil with a fresh cloth.  “So, you’re crushing on an older man?  That’s cute.”

“Trust me, I’m not interested.”

“Alright, alright,” Sock said, laughing.  “What else do you want to know?”

Jonathan paused to think before opening his mouth again.  “What are your parents like?” he asked.

That struck a nerve.  Sock froze in his cleaning, his grip on the washcloth tightening until his knuckles turned white.  His right hand was trembling again, and it wasn’t long before both the cloth and android hand fell from his grasp.

“Sock?” Jonathan called in a concerned voice.

“My parents are dead.”  It was barely more than a hushed whisper.  His words were so soft that they were easily drowned out by the air conditioning.

Jonathan didn’t know how to react.  “I-I’m sorry.”

There was no answer.

~~~~~

Jonathan missed the bus after work.  He had spent a few minutes too long cleaning up in the workshop, deciding to give Sock a little break from doing all the extra little chores.  It ended up costing him a ride back to his apartment, but at least he could enjoy the nice city view.

The streets were filled with fast-moving cars, zipping back and forth.  The traffic was terrible around this time because everyone seemed to have just finished their work hours, but most of the sidewalks still had a reasonable amount of space.  Humans and androids alike passed by him, the androids typically carrying some sort of load for their human owners.  It was the droid’s responsibility to carry anything their humans might have purchased.  They were nothing more than slaves with blank metal faces and the incapability to say ‘no’.

He had just crossed the street and walked past the café that he, Lil, and Jojo frequented at least once a week when he noticed something strange.  The wind had blown a piece of litter onto the pavement and he just so happened to step onto it.  It was only a paper bag and there was a dumpster in the alleyway next to the café, so Jonathan planned to throw it away properly.  It wasn’t until he spotted a small gray dog snooping around on the other side of the dumpster that he felt something was off.

The little dog gnawed hungrily on a simple turkey sandwich with white bread and had an old bowl of water sitting next to him.  It was a common enough meal and it was highly likely one of the café workers had left it out for the poor thing, but something about it seemed oddly familiar.  When dog noticed him, it flinched and ran behind the dumpster with some of the food, whimpering in fear of the man approaching.

“Woah, don’t worry boy,” Jonathan said as he slowly neared the mutt.  He tried to speak calmly so not to frighten it any further.  “Where did you get that…”

He didn’t need to say anymore before it clicked.  Jonathan looked at the brown bag in his hands and took a deep breath before turning it over.

“For Sock” it read.

~~~~~

Jonathan stormed into their workshop the next day.  Sock was lounging on one of the chairs while he fiddled around on his phone, his legs propped up on the center table.  The slam of the door forced him to look up from his device.

“Well, someone’s in a bad mood.”

“Care to tell me why you never eat the lunch I bring you?”

Sock raised his eyebrows then returned his gaze to his phone screen.  He was simply playing a little puzzle game.  “I told you not to bring me one.  Since I wasn’t going to eat it, I wasn’t going to let it go to waste.  I gave it to a dog that really needed the food.”

“Why didn’t you want to eat it?  My sandwiches aren’t that bad.”

“No, you’re right,” Sock said.  “They actually look pretty good!  I’m just not a sandwich guy, I guess.”

Jonathan frowned and darted his eyes to the side, trying not to meet Sock’s gaze.  “You could’ve told me that.”

“I tried.”

The room fell silent.  Sock resumed his attention to the game in his hands, the screen exploding with pops of color.

“Do you ever eat?” Jonathan asked.

Sock ignored him, but the scrunching of his eyebrows was enough to tell Jonathan that his question was heard.

“Are you sick?  Do you need help?” he said once more.  “Is there something you’re hiding?  You can tell me, you know.  Please, Sock, just tell if anything is wrong so I can stop worrying about you.”

“I’m _fine_.”

“You won’t be if you don’t take care of yourself,” Jonathan said.  “Don’t think I haven’t noticed.  Your hand shakes like a leaf.  You need to give your body fuel to work, or you’re going to crash and burn.”

“My hand is _fine_ now, thank you very much.  I got it checked out.”

Jonathan sighed and rubbed his temples.  “What is it going to take for me to get you to eat something?”

“It doesn’t matter what you do,” Sock said.  “I’m not going to eat anything you give me.”

Jonathan gritted his teeth.  “I’ll make you something other than a sandwich, okay?  I’ll cook actual food.  Or we can go out for lunch together and I’ll take you to any restaurant you want.  I’ll even make dinner reservations if you would rather wait until after work.  Anything to get you to eat for once.”

Sock sent him a confounded look.  The corners of his lips slowly curled into a sneaky grin.  “Is this your way of asking me on a date?

Color rose to his face.  “What?  No!”  Jonathan stumbled back into the counter and Sock let out the most obnoxious laugh he had ever heard.

“Alright, Jonathan, we can go out together if you want.  After work, of course.  You know how it is.  I’m just a workaholic!”

“Is this what it’ll take to get you to eat something?”

“No promises.”

~~~~~

Jonathan looked down at his phone screen, awaiting Sock’s response to his message.

‘ _I’m at your place.  Ready to go yet?_ ’

He had sent the text nearly ten minutes ago and it had yet to be read.  The little word “delivered” was written underneath the text bubble and Jonathan tapped his foot impatiently.  Was this the right apartment?  Was Sock in trouble?  Why wasn’t he answering his phone?

His worries were immediately quelled when Sock opened the door, preparing to run out.  He jumped a little upon seeing the blond standing in the doorway after nearly colliding with him.  “Jonathan!  You’re here.”

“I’ve been here for a while, now,” Jonathan said.  “Didn’t you see my text?”

“You texted me?”  Sock tilted his head in confusion and stuck his hands into his pockets, trying to find his forsaken phone.

“Nevermind.”  Jonathan simply waved him off.  It was then that he noticed Sock’s… flamboyant choice of fashion.

As always, Sock wore his red aviator hat, the starred flaps covering his ears and his gold goggles stretched over the top.  He had a matching red scarf dangling around his neck.  An oversized brown vest with yellow trim was worn over a simple light blue t-shirt and a purple skirt sticking out from the bottom.  Under the skirt were ripped denim pants rolled up near his knees.  Stripped socks and brown ankle-boots were worn over his feet and he bounced up and down on his toes.

“How do I look?” Sock asked when he noticed Jonathan staring.  He spun around to give him a better view, pointing his thumbs at himself and winking.  “See something you like?”

 “I think I lost my appetite.”

“Well then, how ‘bout we skip dinner and just have some fun?” Sock suggested.

Jonathan shook his head adamantly.  “Nope.  We’re not doing anything until you eat for once.”

Sock stuck out his tongue jokingly.  This was going to be a long night.

~~~~~

“Two waters, please.”

Jonathan sat across the table from Sock, who was comfortably nestled on the soft seat of the booth.

“Two waters,” repeated the hospitality-droid that was tending their table.  It had no real face; although it possessed a head resembling a human’s, the front was smooth and projected a holographic image of their customers’ order as well as their accumulated bill total.  Its chest had a keyboard in case any manual changes needed to be made.

Unlike the home-droids and errand-droids, hospitality-droids were made to appear sleek and aesthetically pleasing to the eye.  They spent more time in public than home-droids did.  Those robotic housekeepers were rather bulky and plain, focusing more on the functionality to clean and cook.  Errand-droids spent lots of time around the city as well, zipping through the sidewalks to pick up anything their owners may need, but that meant they had to be fit for movement and able to carry an immense amount of stuff.

Besides, better looking androids were good for business.

“Are you ready to order?” the droid asked in its computerized voice.

“Yeah,” Jonathan said, flipping to a page in the menu, “I’ll have the Frontega Chicken Panini.”

“One Frontega Chicken Panini.”

Jonathan set down his menu and nodded for Sock to go.  He was still flipping through the menu choices, his eyebrows furrowed with concentration.  “One moment, please,” he said to the droid.

“I could not detect “moment” on our menu.  Please select another item.”

“No, I –”  Sock continued to scan his options.  “I meant I would like more time, please.”

The droid took a moment to process his words.  “Of course.  I will send in your current order.  Two waters.  One Frontega Chicken Panini.  Coming right up.”  With that, the hospitality-droid rolled off to the kitchen, leaving the two men alone at their table.

They sat at a booth in the back corner of the café, right next to the bathroom.  For dinner, Jonathan didn’t really want to pick anywhere too fancy since he had the gnawing suspicion that Sock wasn’t going to eat much, regardless of the reason for the meeting in the first place.  The café, La Corbeille à Pain – a simple establishment with a trendy interior design and an incredible business location – was his go-to choice for meals.  It served all kinds of delicious sandwiches, pastas, and soups and had great coffee and tea.  Plus, it was moderately priced, so it wasn’t a huge damper on his bank account.

“What ever happened to human wait-staff?” Sock mumbled.  Human waiters and waitresses were largely replaced during the dawn of the invention of androids, and although some places still hired people for the work, they were seldom found and didn’t tend to stick long.

“People cause too many issues,” Jonathan said.  “It’s easier just to have a robot to get the job done.  No fighting or arguing over the order, no worrying about whether or not your waiter is in a good mood – all those issues go out the window.”

“Shouldn’t the staff be human to draw in more customers?” Sock said.  “It seems like a better sales technique to have a more approachable staff to, you know, convince you to buy something.”

Jonathan propped his elbow on the table and rested his head on his hand.  “Don’t really need that in a restaurant.  Once we sit down, they’re assuming we’re going to buy something.  It’s why retail-droids are much rarer in comparison.”

The hospitality-droid returned with their drinks.  “Your order has been submitted,” it said.  The faceless screen turned to Sock and it lit up with their current order list.  “Have you decided yet?”

Sock set down his menu and looked over the menu for pastas.  He held up the menu to Jonathan and pointed at one of the choices.  “Is this any good?”

He squinted his eyes as he read over the item Sock picked.  After reading it, his face melted into an exhausted expression.  “Sock, that’s part of the kid’s menu.  And it’s just mac and cheese.”

“That doesn’t answer my question!  And besides, I’m not that hungry.”

“Of course you’re not.”  Jonathan leaned back into his seat, expecting nothing less than Sock’s usual excuse.  “Order it.  Their mac and cheese is pretty good.”

Sock smiled and folded up his menu.  “One Kid’s Mac and Cheese, please!”

“One Kid’s Mac and Cheese.”  The item popped up on the order screen, adding to their total.  “Coming right up.”

As the droid went away, Sock waved after it.  “Thank you, miss!” he yelled, attracting some unwanted attention from the other patrons.  Jonathan threw the paper wrapper from his straw at him.

“Dude, quiet down.  People are staring.”

Sock apologized and began stirring around his drink.  “I was just trying to be nice.”

“It’s a droid,” Jonathan said.  “It doesn’t care whether or not you’re _nice_.”

“Well, I care.”

Jonathan scoffed.  “That’s cute and all, but it doesn’t exactly help your case.”

“Did you just call me ‘cute’?” Sock asked, leaning across the table.

“You wish.”

When their food came out, Jonathan quickly picked up his sandwich and stuffed it in his mouth.  It was delicious, as usual, and it was certainly a change of pace compared to the normal sandwiches he made for himself.  Who was the genius that figured out how to make meat between toasted bread could taste so good?

Meanwhile, Sock only poked at his food with a fork.  The cheesy goodness and curly noodles of pasta were repeatedly swirled in the bowl, earning more than a few holes each from where he stabbed them.  Jonathan kept holding out, hoping that he’d take a bite on his own, but when he finished his sandwich and Sock had yet to even lift the fork to his mouth, he decided to intervene.

“Just take a bite already,” he said.  There was a bit of desperation laced in his voice.  He thought it was slight enough to not be noticed, but Sock glanced up at him with a guilty look in his eyes.  It was as if those gorgeous green hues had lost their luster.

“Sorry,” Sock said, his voice meek.  “I just – It’s been a while since – Ah, whatever.”  He pierced a single noodle and brought it to his face, watching the cheese drip back into the bowl.  He gulped.  “Well, here goes nothing.”

With a single fell swoop, Sock opened his mouth and downed the food in less than five seconds, pressing his eyes closed.  When he finished, he opened his eyes to find himself staring right at Jonathan, who was displaying an odd mix of pride and incredulity.

“Wow,” he said in shock, “so you can eat.”

Sock laughed nervously.  “Y-Yeah.”

Jonathan sipped on his water.  “Was it good?”

“Pretty good, I think.”

“You think?”

“I, uh, can’t really taste it much,” Sock said.

“What do you mean?”

“I guess my taste buds are kind of fucked right now.  I’m probably just sick or something.”

They sat without conversation for a while, the only noise being Jonathan slowly slurping his water from a straw.  Sock continued to mess around with his pasta.

“Look,” Jonathan began, “now that I know you can actually eat, we’re not leaving until you finish that food.  I’m not letting you get away with starving yourself any more than you already do.”

“Aw, Jonathan, you care!” Sock teased.

“Don’t change the subject,” he snapped.  He regretted it the moment the sharp words left his mouth, sighing and allowing himself to relax again.  Thankfully, Sock didn’t seem to be affected by the harshness of his tone.  “Look, I never said I didn’t care.  In fact, I always have.  I guess that’s why I was so worried about you.”

Sock smiled and looked down at his bowl.  “That’s really sweet.  It’s been a while since anyone cared about me.”

Jonathan was about to ask what he meant when the brunet suddenly shoveled a huge mountain of macaroni down his throat.  Sock chewed on the food carefully, swallowing before taking an equally enormous bite.  Jonathan could only watch with complete and utter amazement.

It seemed like his words were enough to get Sock through the entire meal.

~~~~~

Jonathan stood outside the men’s restroom waiting for Sock.  He kept checking the time on his phone to make sure they weren’t late.  He _did_ have plans for them, after all.  With each passing minute, he could feel the anxiety creeping up his back.  What was taking Sock so long, anyways?

When the bathroom door creaked open and Sock strolled out, Jonathan felt a rush of relief.  “Jeez, what were you doing in there?”

“Uh, peeing,” Sock answered.

“Well, let’s go.  We don’t want to be late.”

On the way out, Jonathan held open the door for Sock, after which they linked arms as they went down the street.  He led the way, trying not to get to flustered with the smaller man flush up against him.

Sock really didn’t have much concern for personal space.

“So, where are we heading?” Sock asked, his head resting on Jonathan’s shoulder.

“To a concert,” Jonathan said.  “My friend, Jojo, owed me a favor –”

“For what?” Sock interrupted.

Jonathan snorted.  “She was on a really bad date and had me call saying her cat was sick.”

“Aw, she has a cat?”  Sock looked up at him with the most adorable smile he had ever laid eyes on.  “I love cats!”

“No.”  The smile immediately left Sock’s face, and Jonathan felt a part of his heart crack at the look of disappointment he received.  “It was just the first lie to pop in my head.”

Sock returned his eyes to the pavement, puffing out his cheeks.  “Well, she should get a cat.  Or a dog.  They’re really cute.”  He paused before adding to his comment.  “I want a dog.”

“What about that gray one you kept feeding?” Jonathan mentioned.  “It could use a nice home.”

“I think he’s scared of me,” Sock said, darting his eyes to the side.  “He was always nervous when I came, even though I brought food.  I would never hurt him, though.”

“Oh.”

“So, uh, how did your friend get the concert tickets?” Sock asked with a forced smile, trying to change the subject.

Jonathan pushed him to the side a little to fish the tickets from his pocket.  “Well, she works in the criminal investigation unit and her boss has all kinds of connections, so she managed to get some tickets to the show.  Turns out they helped solve a case at the stadium the band is playing at.  I think it was about some missing sound equipment or something.”  He handed one ticket to Sock, who accepted it happily and stuck it into his vest.

“Why did her boss agree to give her tickets?”

“Favor.  Same circumstance.  She faked a case of murder to get Agent Providence out of her date.”

“Ah.”  Sock adjusted his skirt before latching back onto Jonathan.  “What band are we seeing?”

“Valhalla Soundbox.”

“Valhalla Soundbox?” Sock repeated.  “Never heard of ‘em!”

Jonathan stopped right in his tracks, causing Sock to trip at the sudden halt.  “Seriously?  You’re unbelievable.” he said with astonishment.  “They’re this grunge-indie band that has a really unique sound.  They’re pretty big, so I don’t know how you haven’t heard of them before.”

Sock shrugged.  “I guess they didn’t fall into my music tastes.”

“Then, what are your music tastes?”

“Uh, I don’t know,” Sock mused.  “I guess I don’t listen to much.”

“At least you’ll get to hear them tonight,” Jon said.  “In my opinion, hearing them live is the best way to appreciate their music.  There are all these subtle nuances you can hear and they have all these awesome stage tricks – It’s just amazing.”  His words were filled with passion as he spoke, each word revealing his undeniable captivation with what he described.

“You sound really excited,” Sock said with a grin.  “You look really nice when you’re excited.”

Rosiness spread across Jonathan’s cheeks and he quickly wiped away the enthusiasm that had slipped through.  He tried his best to return to the usual stoic display he normally kept, but he could never quite wash away all of his excitement.  “Yeah, thanks,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck.  Sock pressed up against him once again, a slight skip in his step as they neared the stadium.

The line was incredibly long due to the security measures that needed to be taken.  Security-droids were stationed at all entrances, their red laser scanners running over each person as they came through the doors.  A conveyor belt of miscellaneous bags, phones, belts, and other metal objects slid by the human security guards for a safety check.  Each concert attendee stepped through the metal detectors before being allowed into the stadium’s main area.

At the sight of the stadium crowd, Sock seemed to pale.  He pushed Jonathan in front of him and hid behind him, holding onto his arm with a bone-crushing grip as he peaked over the blond’s shoulder.

“Ow!” Jonathan shoved Sock to the side, rubbing his arm.  “Dude, what the heck are you doing?”

“I-I’m not so sure I want to go anymore.”

Jonathan gave him a confused look.  “What do you mean?”

“There’s, uh –”  Sock gulped.  “There’s a lot of people.  And security.”

“So?  It’s not like you’re trying to smuggle in a knife, right?” Jonathan joked.  When he noticed that Sock wasn’t laughing, it was his turn to start worrying.  “Oh my god, Sock, you didn’t _actually_ try to bring a knife, right?”

“Of course not!” Sock defended, holding up his hands as proof.  “I just don’t feel comfortable being scanned like that!  And there’s way more people than I was expecting.  You know I don’t like crowds.”

Jonathan grabbed Sock by the shoulders and tried to calm his nerves.  “Look, Sock, I know this is probably your first concert –”

“It is.”

“– but there’s nothing to be so afraid of.  It’s crowded, it’s hot, it’s loud – It’s all part of the experience.  So, please, relax.  Everything is going to be fine.”

Sock’s breathing slowly evened out as he stared into Jonathan’s eyes.  Jonathan could see the fear in his bright green eyes slowly fade the longer they stood together.

“You’re right,” Sock said eventually.  He let out a breathless laugh.   “Everything is going to be fine.  Because I’m going home.”

Jonathan felt his heart in his throat.  “What?” he said, his voice cracking.

“I’m going home, Jonathan,” he repeated.  “I hope you have fun at the concert, I really do, but this just isn’t for me.”

“But, Sock –”  He reached out an arm for the retreating brunet, grabbing his wrist before he got too far.  Sock’s hand struggled in his grip.  “Look, if you don’t want to go, we can do something else together.  We can hang at my place if you want; I have all of Valhalla Soundbox’s songs on my phone and laptop.”

“No, if I’m not going to the concert, then at least you should.  For both of us.”  Sock pulled slightly on his arm, trying to free it from Jonathan to no avail.  “I saw how passionate you were when you were describing them and their music.  That was the happiest I had ever seen you!  I know you really want this, so you should go.”

“What about you?”

“I’ll be okay.  We can hang out another time,” Sock said.

Jonathan let go of his hand.  “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.”

He tried to hand Jonathan back the ticket he had given him, but he shook his head.  “Keep it,” Jonathan said.  “It can be a little memory of our first time out together.  Even if you’re not going to the concert.  Besides, I’d want you to have it.”

Sock nodded and put it back, his hands shaking as he stuck them into the pocket of his vest.  As he made his way down the street, Sock waved to Jonathan, using his entire arm to say goodbye.  He seemed to have a tinge of regret in his face, as if he didn’t want to leave, but it was barely noticeable and Jonathan wrote it off as his mind making things up.  His eyes always tricked him.  This was probably no exception.

However, he could have sworn that Sock’s green eyes possessed a radioactive glow as he walked along the dimly lit sidewalk.

Jonathan made his way through the lengthy line, idle thoughts rushing through his head from the moment Sock left to when he got home and passed out on his bed.  He couldn’t shake the image of Sock leaving from his mind, no matter how hard he tried.  He saw him when he finally made it to the front of the line, when the security droid passed its red laser scanner over him, when he walked through the metal detector and into the concert hall itself.  He was drowning in the music, but swimming in his mind, as if he were only half there.

~~~~~

The next day at work, Jonathan came in to see Sock already started on a new repair.

“Morning!” Sock greeted.  “How was the concert?”

“Good.”  Jonathan tiredly made his way to the counter, pulling out his phone and purple headphones.  Dark bags were evident under his eyes.

Sock fiddled around with a wrench as he watched his coworker get ready to start.  “I’m really sorry, again, that I didn’t go to the concert with you.  I wanted to, it’s just –”

“You don’t like crowds?” Jonathan finished.  His coworker laughed, confirming his statement.

“Bingo.  I’m surprised you’d want to go to a crowded place like that.”

“Yeah, I’m not the social-type.  I just went for the music.”  He considered his words before adding to his statement.  “It would have been a lot more fun with you though.”

Sock smiled to himself and continued working, humming a quiet tune to himself as he focused.  It was faint, but when Jonathan heard his voice, he was immediately entranced.  Something about it was so beautiful, so mesmerizing, so calming… and so oddly familiar.

“Is… Is that “Ghost of Venus” by Valhalla Soundbox?” he asked.

“Yeah!  I figured that since I couldn’t listen to them live, I could listen to them at home.  So, I looked up a bunch of their songs and they’re really good!” Sock said.

“I can’t believe you actually listened to them,” Jonathan said with a chuckle.  “I thought trying to get you to listen to their music would be like getting you to eat all over again.”

Sock playfully tapped him on the head with his wrench.  “Hey, I did it eventually.  You can’t complain anymore.”

“I guess not.”  Jonathan picked up his headphones for a moment before sighing and putting them back in his back.  He reached inside, feeling around for his seldom used earbuds instead.  When he finally found them in a tangled mess, he unraveled the cords and stuck them into the audio jack of his phone, going to join Sock at the worktable.  He held out one earbud for him, putting the other in his own ear.

“What’s this?” Sock asked, taking the earbud and popping it in.

Jonathan didn’t speak a word and simply turned on his music.  He didn’t need to say anything else before Sock understood what he was doing.

They spent the rest of the day in silence.  They didn’t need words to express themselves.

The only thing they needed was there all along.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed! I'm like halfway-ish done with the next chapter so that'll probably be out soon. I've got the whole thing planned out already so fingers crossed that it won't take too long to finish. Comments are really great and will act as writing fuel so please let me know what you think!
> 
> (If anyone's wondering I just pulled the sandwich Jonathan ordered off of the Panera Bread menu)


	2. Broken

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I said the next chapter would be a little less of a mess but I think I might have lied. Starts a bit rough bc I have no idea how to begin things. Anyways, have a little fluff and a lot of angst. This chapter is more plot/background/world heavy than the first, but it goes into Sock's past and is a little longer. Hope you enjoy it though!

This was the third android attack in the past two weeks.

When the first attack occurred, everyone had assumed that it was an isolated incident.  But after three more cases followed in close succession, it became clear that these were connected.

Each android had certain similarities in the damages they received.  Firstly, they were torn apart as if ripped open by an inhuman monster.  The separation of their parts was jagged and clearly not cut with any sort of tools.

All the memory cards and surveillance footage from the androids had been disposed of, which was the second similarity.  Not a single piece of evidence was left behind that might reveal the identity of the guilty party.  They had cleaned up well; investigators couldn’t even find hair or prints at any of the crime scenes, and anything that might have recorded the attacker was surely destroyed by their own hand.

The final connection that investigators found was that different parts were missing from them.  Not just parts that had been lost in the fight or discarded for evidence like their memory cards, but parts that seemed as if someone had stolen them.

One android had its wiring taken.  At first, it was assumed that they were ripped out in the conflict, but it was later noticed that the wire connectors were in pristine condition.  Someone must have tried to salvage the wires and made sure not to damage them.  If they had been damaged, their attack would have been fruitless.

A different android – an errand-droid sent to pick up some mail deliveries – had been stripped of its fan belt.  The poor thing could barely function without it; after all, errand-droids were built for movement.  With a missing fan belt, it couldn’t maneuver very well at all.  All of its meaning and purpose was lost.

Jonathan and Sock were given each of the newly attacked droids; they were the best mechanics in the city, after all.  Looking at the droids sickened Jonathan.  Even though he was used to seeing broken androids, seeing them torn apart like savages was unsettling.  Androids were works of genius and a monumental leap in mankind’s advancements; they didn’t deserve to be mangled.

“Do you think this is what a human body looks like on the inside?” Sock asked as he pulled out an armful of wires and cables.  He set them aside and yanked out an indistinguishable part.  It was covered in gunked-up oil to the point where neither of them could tell what it was.  A pool of oil was dripping from the android’s body.

With a grimace, Jonathan joined him at what had become the ‘operation table’, according to Sock.  “I don’t think humans have rainbow wires and oil.”

“Veins, blood – It’s all the same.”

“What about the organs?”

“Probably stuff like this!” Sock said, holding up the gooey object.  He tried to squish it in his hands.  “It’s oddly firm, yet malleable.  Want to feel it?”

Jonathan backed away.  “No, I’m good!”

Sock had a devious look on his face.  “Oh, come on,” he said, stepping closer to the blond, “you know you want to…”

It didn’t take long before Sock had mercilessly begun to chase Jonathan with the unidentified part, dripping black oil from his hands as his target yelled at him to stop.  After a few runs around the table, Sock had tripped in a puddle that had gathered on the floor, toppling to the ground with a tremendously loud _thud_.  Jonathan howled with laughter at him, but he only had a second of peace before he too stepped onto an oil slick and slid on the floor, landing right on his butt next to Sock.

Sock burst into a fit of giggles, rolling on the floor.  He didn’t even care that there was oil on his back and all in his hair.  Jonathan jokingly slapped him with his gloves, rubbing his sore bottom.  “Fuck you,” he said.

“Do it,” Sock challenged.  He wore a sultry expression, his eyelids drooping and staring at Jonathan with the most intense look he had seen from him yet.  Jonathan couldn’t help but stare back.

Now that he took the time to observe him, there were so many things about Sock he hadn’t seen before.  He never noticed the light dusting of freckles that sprinkled over his nose and cheeks.  He never saw how despite his rough line of work, his hands were free from callouses and his skin looked absolutely flawless.  He never looked deep enough into his eyes that he saw strings of gold weaved into his green irises.

He never realized how much he meant to him.

It soon became apparent that he was staring too long, but Sock seemed to have zoned out as well.  Jonathan shook his head and scoffed, trying to paint on his usual apathetic attitude.  “Not in a million years,” he finally answered.

Sock snorted and let his head fall down onto the floor.  “Coward.”  He had a teasing tone to his voice and a smirk playing on his lips.

They didn’t accomplish much that day, but at least they shared a few good laughs.

~~~~~

“I swear, if I see one more case of an android attack on my desk, I’m going to murder someone,” Jojo complained from the couch.  Her voice was seething with anger.  Jonathan sat next to her sprawled-out body, gently kicking her to make room for himself.

Lil entered the room with three mugs of hot chocolate, mini marshmallows, and some chocolate bars balanced on a tray.  She set them down on the coffee table and took one, sipping the hot beverage carefully.  “You know, if you guys just apprehended the attacker, then you wouldn’t have to worry about it anymore.”

“Not helping.”  Jojo sat up and snatched a mug from the tray, grabbed a handful of mini marshmallows, and tossed them into her drink.  “So, Jonathan, how did the concert go on Saturday?”

“It was fine,” he answered, watching as the contents of his mug swirled around.  “Sock didn’t come.”

“What?  Why?”

Jonathan shrugged.  “He doesn’t like crowds.  I guess seeing the huge turnout freaked him out.  It’s a bummer, really.  He seemed really excited to go until we got there.”

“You seemed pretty excited to go with him, too,” Lil commented from her seat on the floor.  She had taken one of the throw pillows from Jonathan’s couch and used it as a cushion.  “It’s the most emotion I’ve seen you display ever since, well – ever.”

“Lil’s right,” Jojo said.  “You practically begged me for those tickets over the phone.  It sucks that he didn’t end up going with you.”

“Doesn’t matter.  It’s not like I care,” Jonathan said.  Aggravation was creeping up in his voice.

“You _sound_ like you care.”

Jonathan snapped one of the chocolate bars and put the broken pieces into his cup.  “Well, you’re _wrong_.  I _don’t_ care.”

“Come on, Jonathan, you’re kidding yourself.  I’m a professional investigator; I can smell a lie from a mile away.  Especially if it’s coming from you, because you’re terrible at lying.”

“And what in the world do you think I’m lying about?”

A smirk had worked its way onto Jojo’s face.  “Oh, do you really want to know?”

“If it’ll finally get you to shut up, then yeah, I do.”

“The truth might shock you.  It’ll hurt.  A lot.”

Jonathan threw a fist of marshmallows at her face.  The sugary pieces stuck in her hair and fell all over the couch.  “Fine,” she said.  “Lil, hold my drink.”  Her friend happily obliged.  “Listen, you stubborn bleach-blond ass, you can deny it all you want, but we all know that you’re head-over-heels with your co-worker.”

“I am not –”

“I’ve seen the way your face changes when you talk about him.  I’ve heard your voice and how you get so lost in describing him.  I can’t even imagine how you must look when you’re with him.  I’ve noticed how ever since he was hired, you’ve been better rested and happier when going to work.  It’s like you’re absolutely _in love_ with your job, but you’re not, and I know you’re not, because you used to talk about how much of a drag it was every single day.”

She paused in her little rant as if expecting Jonathan to speak.  He could only sit deep in thought as he took in her words and ran them through his head, over and over.  He liked about Sock, that was no doubt.  He was the only other close friend he had other than Lil and Jojo.  He was just the same as Lil and Jojo, right?

“What are you trying to say?” Jonathan asked, his voice slightly strained.

Jojo’s smugness had melted away in exchange for sincerity.  “I think you love him.”

Everything clicked.  It was like the broken gear in his mind was finally turning again.  A missing piece was just put back into place.  It all made sense.

“I… I think you’re right.”

~~~~~

Jonathan marched boldly into work the following morning.  His head was held high, he walked with utmost pride, and he made sure to clean up his appearance as best as he could.  He even slicked back his hair, as per Lil’s suggestion.  Not that it really mattered, since he was bound to be covered in dirt and grime by lunchtime.

When he approached the door to the workshop, he could hear Sock loudly setting up a new repair.  The metal banged on the table as he put the android on the worksurface.

He strolled into the room to see Sock pulling out his tools.  “Hiya, partner!” Sock said, adjusting his goggles over his face.  Even through the smudged glass lenses, his green eyes were still as bright as ever.  “What’s with your hair?  It looks kind of funny.”

Well, there went his confidence.  “At least it’s better than that mop of hair you have,” he said, his natural instincts kicking in.  He mentally beat himself up for his snarky nature.

“Ooh, ouch,” Sock said sarcastically.  He walked over to Jonathan and ran his fingers through his hair, ruffling it up until it looked like its usual messiness.

“Hey!” Jonathan yelled, slapping away Sock’s hands.  “That took twenty minutes.”

“It looks better this way,” Sock said, referring to his normal hairstyle.  “Looking good, hot stuff.”  He winked and shot finger guns at his coworker.

Jonathan could feel the heat rising to his face.  “W-What did you just call me?” he asked, but Sock had already begun to walk away.

“Hm?”  The brunet turned back to him holding a screwdriver.  “You mean ‘hot stuff’?”

“Uh, yeah,” he said, gulping.  “What’s up with that?”

“I don’t know.  Just rambling, I guess.”  Sock went back to work and whistled a little tune, a small smile noticeable on his face.

It was amazing how Sock could be so flirtatious yet oblivious.  He was able to say all these little things to get Jonathan flustered, and yet he never showed any signs of nervousness himself.  Meanwhile, Jonathan was having trouble even saying anything remotely emotional.  How was Sock able to keep his cool so well?

What if it was a sign that he wasn’t interested?

_Of course_ , he thought to himself.  Why else would Sock be so easy with his little teasing comments?  Because it was all a joke to him.

He didn’t care.  But Jonathan did.

And it hurt.  A lot.

~~~~~

“So, did you finally ask Sock out on a real date?”  Lil spoke with Jonathan over the phone when he got home.  It was late at night and both of them had work the next day, but neither really cared enough to go to bed.  They could just drink a gallon of coffee in the morning.

“No,” Jonathan said.  He lied uncomfortably in his bed, twisting and turning every minute or so.  “I chickened out.  I don’t think he likes me that way, anyways.”

He could hear static coming from the other end as Lil adjusted her position.  “Why do you say that?” she asked in a concerned voice.

“He’s always flirting with me and stuff, like it’s no big deal –”

“Isn’t that a good thing?” Lil said.  “He’s flirting with you!”

“Yeah, but he does it like he doesn’t really care,” Jonathan said.  “He’s never serious about it and he brushes it off almost immediately.  Earlier today he called me ‘hot stuff’ and a second later he forgot.  He doesn’t like me, Lil, at least not that way.”

Lil huffed.  “You don’t know that.  Maybe he just gets nervous or flustered around you and tries to act cool.”

“If he is, he’s doing one hell of a job at it.  I’ve never seen him get flustered the whole time I’ve known him.  Other than when I tried to force him to eat or when we went to the concert, that is.”

“You’re overthinking this Jonathan –”

“No, I’m not, I’m just being realistic!” he snapped.  The other end of the line went silent and he quickly muttered an apology.  “I’m sorry, it’s just – I don’t want to get my hopes up if it doesn’t work out.  I really like him and… I don’t want to ruin what we have now.  He’s happy, I’m _kind of_ happy, everything is fine.”

Lil sighed.  “Jonathan, you deserve to be _completely_ happy.  Listen, for as long as I’ve known you, you’ve always looked a little miserable.”  There was a pause before she continued.  “Okay, _really_ miserable.  Throughout high school, college, your job before Sock came to work with you – it was like you hated the world and everything in it.”

“Except you and Jojo.”

“Except me and Jojo,” she said, laughing.  “But, ever since Meph hired Sock, you’ve been so much happier.  Everyone has noticed.  The bags under your eyes have faded, you wear your headphones less… It’s like you’ve finally started to enjoy yourself instead of shutting everything out.  You can’t just assume that Sock doesn’t like you and leave it at that, because do you know for sure?  No, you don’t. If you live in fear of what _might_ happen, you’ll never know what _will_ happen.”

“That’s what makes it hard,” Jonathan said.  “I… I _don’t_ know what’s going to happen.  I’m scared of how things might turn out.  I’m afraid I’ll ruin things again, just like I always do.  Nothing ever turns out well when I act on my feelings.  Feelings are just… a hindrance.”

“Well, feelings are part of being human; you can’t let fear be the only thing holding you back.  You’re always too afraid to act on your emotions, but sometimes you just need to trust your heart.”

Jonathan chuckled from his end of the line.  “I guess.  Maybe I should just do it.  You know, ask him out.”

“That’s the spirit!  Go get him, tiger!”

“The next time I see him, I’m going to ask him on a date.”

“Right, now make that a promise to yourself.  No matter what, you’re going to ask him out.  Got it?”

“Yep, I’m going to promise myself I’ll do it.  I have to stop listening to my head and start listening to my heart,” Jonathan repeated.

“ _And_ start listening to you friend, Lil,” she added.

A confident smile spread across his face.  “Of course.”

When the morning rolled around and he walked in on Sock changing in the workshop, he broke his promise.

Jonathan froze in the doorway as he watched Sock strip off his oil stained shirt, rummaging through his bag for a clean one.  “Uh, what are you doing?” he asked, throwing his own things onto the counter.

“Oh, hey, Jonathan!” Sock said, waving.  “The latest repair got gunked up and splattered all over me.  I have a spare shirt, though, don’t worry.”

“Uh-huh.”

He watched awkwardly as Sock put on a new t-shirt, wrapping the soiled one in a plastic bag and putting it aside.  The other man wasn’t particularly muscular or well-built – in fact, he was somewhat scrawny for a mechanic – but that didn’t make him any less fascinating.

Sock’s wild hair popped through the neck hole and he pulled down the bottom of his shirt.  “Ah, much better!”  He stood up, looping his arms through his overalls.  “Lucky that I didn’t get my pants too dirty.  I don’t have any spares for that.”  He snorted to himself.  “Otherwise, I’d have to work naked, and neither of us would want that, right?”

Jonathan narrowed his eyes uncomfortably.  “Right…”

They went through the rest of the day as usual, making small talk and cracking jokes with one another.  With every passing hour, Jonathan could feel the voice in the back of his brain screaming at him to get it over with and ask Sock on a date.  It was a simple question, wasn’t it, so why couldn’t he do it?

The clock struck five and Sock immediately began to pack his things.  “Looks like it’s quitting time!” he said, patting Jonathan on the back.  “I can clean up around here, if you don’t want to.”

“No, I’ll handle it today.  You can just go home,” he said.

Sock nodded.  “Alright, buddy –”  Jonathan winced.  “– I’ll be on my way!  See you tomorrow.”

As he opened the door and prepared to walk out, Jonathan reached out for him.  “Wait!”

Sock turned around to face him, tilting his head in confusion.  “You need help or something?  I can stay a bit longer.”

“No, no, that’s not it,” Jonathan said.  He could feel his heart in his throat, and it was beating fast.  It was one of the most nerve-wracking moments of his life.  “I, uh, was wondering if you’d like to maybe… go out sometime?”

“Like… on a date?” Sock asked with a raised eyebrow.

_This was a mistake_ , Jonathan thought to himself.  “Yeah?  If you want?”

Sock’s eyes lit up and a gigantic grin stretched from ear-to-ear.  “Yes!  Of course, I’ll go on a date with you!” he said.  He was practically jumping off the walls.  He ran over and tackled Jonathan in a hug, nearly strangling the other man.  “’Bout time!”

“Really?  It’s a ‘yes’?”  Jonathan could feel a weight lifted off his shoulders, despite the extra weight he now felt latched onto his torso.

“What else does ‘yes’ mean?” Sock said with a laugh.  He pulled back from the hug and looked at Jonathan in the eyes.  “So, when’s the big date, hot stuff?”

“Uh, I don’t know,” Jonathan admitted, laughing nervously.  “I didn’t think I’d get this far.”

“Pft, dork,” Sock teased, flicking him in the forehead.  “Text me when you decide, ‘kay?”

A breathless laugh escaped his lips.  “Okay.”

At least the hardest part was done.

~~~~~

“You look amazing.”

Jonathan sat at a cloth-covered round table with a flower vase at the center, two sets of plates and silverware set up on opposite sides.  He wore a simple black blazer and button-up shirt with black slacks, fiddling with the cuff links on his jacket.  It was pretty comfortable, but he would give anything to be back in a t-shirt and hoodie.  He was starting to think that maybe picking such a fancy setting for a first date was a bad idea.

That is, until Sock walked in.  He was escorted by the hostess at the restaurant – a human one, surprisingly – and had stopped beside their table.  As always, he wore the most eccentric outfit imaginable: a black vest over a white cold-shoulder top, a dangling purple tie, navy blue formal shorts, a floor-length mint train flowing behind him, and black floral combat boots.  His usual hat was missing, but he wore a few golden hair clips in an attempt to tame his wild auburn hair.

“Thanks!” Sock said, giving a quick twirl.  The skirt trailed around him, gently falling back into position when he stopped.  “You don’t look too shabby yourself.”

Jonathan rose from his seat and pulled out Sock’s chair for him, scoffing as Sock praised him for being “a true gentleman”.  After Jonathan sat back down, the other man scooted his chair over to be right beside him rather than across the table, much to his confusion.

“What are you doing?” Jonathan asked.

“I just want to be closer to you,” Sock said.

“That’s nice, but we’re supposed to sit across from each other.”

Those big, emerald green eyes squinted at him with bewilderment.  “Says who?”

“Basic table etiquette?”

Sock annoying blew a raspberry and rolled his eyes, clearly intent on ignoring him.  “I do what I want,” he said.  “We’re the customers.  Who cares what we’re ‘supposed to do’?”

“Well,” Jonathan said, laughing, “you got me there.”

The two scanned through the menu together, picking up the digital tablet and scrolling through the options.

“See anything you want?” Jonathan asked.

“Hm, how about the cute blond next to me?”  Sock had a devilish grin on his face.

“I meant off the menu.”

“You’re no fun,” he said, leaning onto Jonathan’s shoulder.

A human waiter approached their table after a few minutes.  “Sorry to keep you waiting,” he said apologetically.  “Can I start you off with some drinks?”

“Water,” Jonathan said.  Sock asked for the same.

“Alright, two waters,” the waiter said, scribbling it down.  “Are you ready to order or do you need a few more minutes?”

The two exchanged a quick glance before proceeding.  “We’re ready,” Jonathan said, placing his and Sock’s orders together.  Or should he say, _his_ order.  Sock had decided to eat just salad, which was to be served before the main meal anyways.  The waiter copied their order and ran off to the back kitchen.

Sock watched with interest as the waiter left.  “Wow,” he marveled, “this place actually has a wait-staff!  Like, a human one.”

“Yeah, I know,” Jonathan said, looking at pictures of the desserts.  “That’s why I picked this place.”

“Oh, really?”

“Sure.  You seemed pretty upset that the café was android run, so I figured you’d appreciate a human staff.  Right?”  He was given an excited nod in return.

Sock leaned back in his chair and sighed, balancing it precariously on the back two legs.  “I wish more places kept human workers.  It makes the business seem so cold and lifeless when the first face you meet is a blank metal one with an automated voice.”  He tapped his fingers on the table, gripping the edge to make sure he didn’t fall.  “People are a lot more welcoming.  They’re always like, ‘Oh, hi!  Welcome to our fine establishment!’”

“They are _paid_ to act like that,” Jonathan pointed out with a smile.  It was utterly adorably how Sock tried to mimic their overly enthusiastic behavior.  Not that he had to try too hard.

“But then, when an android greets you at the door, it’s all monotone and boring,” Sock complained.  “They might as well hold up a sign that says, ‘Welcome to Hell’ on the front.”

“I thought you liked androids.”

“I do,” Sock said.  He leaned onto the table, his cheeks squishing up against his hands.  “I just… I wish people improved them more.  They could be so much better, so much nicer, so much… more human.”

Jonathan watched Sock intently, noticing the distant look he had in his eyes.  He scooted closer to him before speaking.  “That’s the reason _why_ androids aren’t made to be better,” he whispered.  “They’re scared that androids would become too human and… I don’t know – take over or something.”

There was a moment of silence between them.  “Are… Are you afraid of androids?” Sock asked softly.  He held a certain level of fragility in his voice, as if it could be shattered like glass.

It took a few moments before he responded, but when he did, his voice was clear from doubt.  “No,” Jonathan said.  “I’m not.”

Sock’s eyes widened with an odd mix of hope and relief.  “Really?”

“I deal with androids every day.  I’m the one that fixes them and gets them working again.  It’s _me_ who they should be afraid of.”

“I guess,” Sock said, giggling to himself.

Their waiter returned with their drinks and a basket filled with different varieties of bread.  They tried all the different rolls and went back and forth tossing around some casual conversation as they waited for their food to come out.  It took a while for their waiter to come back with their starter salads, made from different greens that neither of them had ever seen before.

“Looks like leaves,” Sock said, poking at a purple piece of what he assumed to be lettuce.

“All salads are basically leaves,” Jonathan said.  He drowned his salad in ranch from the fancy gravy bowl that was brought out.  “Want some?” he offered.

Sock shook his head.  “No, I’m good.”

“You can’t seriously be eating a dry salad.”

“Nope, I’m serious.”  To prove his statement, Sock took a large bite of his food without a single drop of dressing.

“You’re insane,” Jonathan said.

Sock shrugged as he continued.  “Not the most insane thing I’ve done.  Besides, at least I’m eating on my own for once.”  He stabbed a few pieces of lettuce and held it up with a smile.  “Happy?”

“I’d be happier if you put some damn dressing on that.”

~~~~~

They spent nearly two hours at the restaurant simply chatting, talking about random topics ranging from work to what was on TV the other night.  A few times, their voices got too loud and they received a few irritated looks from other patrons.  Not that either of them cared; they only paid attention to each other.  No one else mattered to them, especially not any old, snobby strangers.  When they neared the two-hour mark, they finally decided it was best to leave so that their table could be freed up for someone else.  Plus, they could escape the odd glances and judgmental stares they began to attract.

The air out on the street was a refreshing change from the restaurant’s atmosphere.  The city lights illuminated the streets and fluorescent signs were on every building.  Brightly colored cars zipped by in the road, nothing more than quick trails of light.  People and androids moved briskly on the sidewalk, returning to their homes and owners.  Nothing stayed at rest in this city.

“Where to?” Sock asked, stretching his arms and legs.  “A movie theater, maybe?  Or are you trying out a more lavish lifestyle by taking me out to an opera?”

“Eh, kind of the first one,” Jonathan said.  He had already taken off his blazer and slung it over his shoulder.  “I was thinking we could take a nice walk through the park before heading over to my apartment for a movie.  I live right around the block from it and my bedroom window has a great view of the landscape, so I know the whole layout pretty well.”

“Aw, so no late-night adventures?”

“Sorry, but I don’t want to wear this suit for any longer than I have to.  I’m dying to get back into my hoodie.”

Sock absentmindedly slipped his hand into Jonathan’s, their fingers interlocking with each other.  He leaned up against the taller man, his hair tickling Jonathan’s neck.  “Alright, lead the way!”

They walked in silence down the street, passing by numerous stores beckoning them inside.  Jonathan gripped Sock’s hand tightly in his own, relaxing enough to let his own body lean against his companion’s ever so slightly.  He could smell the distinctive scent of motor oil on his person – surely from work, because the same went for himself – mingled with a fresh floral fragrance.  It was light, gentle, and had a sweet note to it.  He found himself so captivated by the pleasant scent that he didn’t even notice when they found themselves at one of the park entrances.

The path into the park was curving and winding, large rocks and boulders build up at different intervals for decoration.  Trees laced with fairy lights lit the way, the leaves reflecting the light with a soft glow.  The path itself was built out of nice smooth stone, carefully placed to form vine-like patterns in the ground.  Flower petals were littered all over the place, having fallen from the blooms on the park trees and bushes.  There were streets surrounding the park, but all of them appeared to be empty.  No cars were anywhere near them and it was oddly quiet for such a busy city, not that anyone was complaining.  The quiet was a welcome change of scenery, not to mention calming.

Jonathan began walking down the path, Sock looking around with fascination at every simple landmark.  The luminescent stone fountain of an angel crying tears, the arched bridge with marble pillars underneath, the brass statue of a goose, even the small birdbath – everything seemed to spark an interest in him.  It was absolutely adorable.

“You look like you’ve never seen nature before,” Jonathan said with amusement.

“I haven’t,” Sock said, a bit too casually.  He was shot a confused glance.

“You’re joking.”

“Not really,” the brunet said.  His expression turned slightly melancholic, his tone a little less cheery.  “I didn’t go out much when I was younger, or at all really.  My parents didn’t really think it was the best idea for me to be outside.”  When the moment passed, he painted back on his mask of enchantment, taking in the view once again.  But, it didn’t go unnoticed by Jonathan.

They slowed their pace, spotting an empty park bench near the playground and deciding to take a seat.  A father played with his young daughter on one of the jungle gyms in the distance, their laughing faint.  Sock and Jonathan settled down on the bench, resigning to watch the father-daughter pair.

Jonathan tried to figure out the best way to approach the subject of Sock’s parents, but he was at a loss.  The last time they were brought up, he learned that they were dead, and Sock was left in a despondent state for the rest of the day.  But, he knew there was something more to him, something he was missing.  He had been working with him for months now.  He considered them good friends.  He had developed feelings for him.  And yet, he knew next to nothing about Sock’s past.  He only wanted a little peak, a small snippet of the life he lived before they met.  He wanted to know who he was working with.  Who he became friends with.

Who he may have fallen in love with.

“Hey, Jonathan,” Sock said, interrupting his train of thought, “can I ask you something?”

He decided to drop the issue until later.  They were enjoying themselves.  There was no need to bring down the mood with the mention of his deceased parents.  “Yeah, sure.”

“What do you think makes a human, well – _human_?”

 “I, uh – I don’t entirely understand the question,” Jonathan mumbled.

Sock laughed bitterly as if he expected it.  “Look at that man over there.”

His response seemed to come out of nowhere.  Jonathan looked back at him with surprise only to find Sock intently watching the father and daughter play together.  He studied the pair more carefully, taking in every detail he could see.  That was when he saw it.

The man lifted his daughter into the air, her giggles ringing through the small area.  The sleeves of his shirt rode up a little to reveal metal.

He was a cyborg.  A human with robotic attachments.  The perfect melding of flesh and steel.

“Is he human?”

“Of course,” Jonathan said without a doubt.

“Then, what is it that makes a cyborg no less human than a normal person, but an android just another robot?” Sock asked.  “And I don’t want you to just say ‘flesh’.”

“Well, um,” Jonathan began, remembering Lil’s words from before, “I’d say it’s the ability to feel.”

Sock turned to the ground.  “Androids can feel,” he said blankly.

“Not, like, physically.  The ability to experience and read emotions.  To understand complex states of mind and to perceive them in different ways, unique to each individual.”  Jonathan shifted his line of sight to Sock, resting a hand onto his.  “At least to me, that’s what it means to be human.  To _feel_.”

Their gazes met slowly, and Jonathan could see himself getting lost in the deep lake green of Sock’s eyes in the dim lighting.  He could see the lights from the park trees reflecting from his hair and irises to show gold.  They were so close, he could feel the warmth from Sock’s body and his breath lightly washed over his skin.

“I think…” Sock whispered, raising a hand to Jonathan’s cheek, “… I feel _you_.”

Suddenly, Sock closed his eyes and took a deep breath, leaning in to close the gap between the two.

The kiss was brief, too short for such an incredible burst of ecstasy.  It was a simple touch of the lips, pure and innocent.  Sock pulled away almost immediately, lifting his hand to cover his mouth.  He looked sick with worry, as if he made a grave mistake with the small gesture.  But that fear vanished when Jonathan gently pushed down Sock’s hand and moved in for a second kiss.

It began tenderly with Jonathan gradually pressing deeper into the kiss, craving nothing more than to be able to feel him.  It was an honest desire, not fueled by lust or sensuality, but by something else, something like real love.  He pulled the smaller man closer, running his hand down the smooth skin of his arms.  Sock wrapped his arms around Jonathan’s shoulders, tilting his head slightly up at him.  With a meager bit of courage, Jonathan ran his tongue over Sock’s bottom lip.

Everything fell apart.

Sock’s eyes shot open and he pulled away from the kiss, his face twisted in shock and confusion.  Jonathan retracted his hands as if they were touching lava and the mere feeling of Sock’s skin would burn him.  He went too far and now he didn’t know what to do.

“I-I, uh,” he stuttered, trying to apologize.

“It’s fine!” Sock assured.  His voice was shaky and uneven.  “It’s not you, it’s me –”

“I’m sorry,” Jonathan blurted.  “Just forget about it.”  He stood up and grabbed his jacket, briskly walking down the path through the park to his apartment.  His home was only a few minutes from there.  He could make it and pretend like this ever happened.

If only it were that easy.  Sock sprung from his seat and walked after him.  “Jonathan!” he yelled, his boots clacking on the hard stone trail.  “Jonathan, come on!  Don’t leave!”

He continued to move.  Maybe he could lose him at a fork in the path or when he reached the street.

Footsteps approached him quickly and he could tell Sock was gaining ground fast.  He broke into a run when he saw a road in the distance, hoping to reach it when the crosswalk light turned on.

He shouldn’t have done this.  Asking Sock on a date was a mistake.  Going on a date was a mistake.  Kissing Sock was a mistake.

Every time he showed emotion, every time he allowed himself to feel, things went wrong.  This was only one disaster of many.

Being human _sucked_.  No matter how hard he tried to detach himself, everything hurt.  It always hurt.

Jonathan barely registered when he reached the street, being too occupied with trying to get the hell out of there.  He didn’t notice that the crosswalk light had turned red, the glowing hand signaling for him to stop despite the absurd lack of vehicles on the road.  He didn’t notice when from around the corner, a large delivery truck came driving towards him at a dangerous speed.

He _did_ , however, notice when someone barreled into him, slamming his body into the pavement on the opposite side of the street.

“Jonathan!” Sock yelled, his voice filled with unrestrained panic and horror.

From his spot on the ground, Jonathan groaned from the stinging on his skin from when he smashed into the hard cement sidewalk.  There were sure to be some nasty bruises and scratches in the morning.  He craned his head over towards Sock’s voice and felt the color drain from his face.

Sock stood in the road where he was, the truck mere seconds away from colliding with him.

Jonathan couldn’t feel his limbs; he was powerless to do anything.  The truck driver hit the brakes of the vehicle, but the momentum was still too great and it continued to roll closer and closer.  Sock turned to face the truck, holding out his hands, the dread emanating strongly off his person.  His hands were shaking.  Jonathan wanted to scream at him to run, but his voice wouldn’t cooperate.

The truck crashed into Sock, the sound of screeching tires and cracking deafening in Jonathan’s ears.  But he was still intact.  He was still alive.  He was still whole.

Sock’s shoes scraped against the dark asphalt, the burning scent of rubber filling the air.  He left a noticeable imprint in the front of the truck, the metal morphed around the shape of his hands.  With every bit of strength in his body, he pressed against the truck until it finally came to a stop and he removed his grip from the truck, stepping back to take in the scene.  He looked down at the palms of his hands in a daze.

Jonathan was stunned.  “S-Sock?” he said, his voice cracking.

The brunet whipped his head around.  His eyes were an alarming shade of red, glowing under the night sky.  He blinked a few times, the color reverting back to his usual green, but he was sure that Jonathan had seen it.

“I have to go,” Sock said, turning the other way and bolting down the street.  Jonathan could only watch as he left.

The door of the truck swung open, and a pudgy man with a trucker’s hat stepped out, struggling to move out from behind the inflated air bag and coughing harshly.  “Damn it,” he said, using his hat to fan himself as he surveyed the damage.  He turned to Jonathan.  “Sorry, kid, didn’t see you out there.  You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m alright,” he said, though his tone of voice wasn’t very convincing.  Regardless, the man ignored it and gave him a hand in standing up.

“What the hell happened?” the driver asked aloud as he stared at the dent in his truck.

_I don’t even know_ , Jonathan thought.  He knew that wasn’t a very good answer.  “Oh, an android passing by pushed me out of the way,” he said, making up something to cover for Sock.  “I think it sensed that I was in danger and its defensive systems kicked in.”

“Ah, lucky for you, then.  Where’d the little robot run off to?”

“Not sure.  I guess it went back to its programmed duties once I was safe.”

It was a good thing the man didn’t see Sock, because he didn’t doubt his claims.  “Well, have a good night, kid.  Stay safe.”  He climbed back into his truck, deflating the air bag and stuffing it elsewhere.

“You, too, sir.”

He couldn’t believe that the man bought into his lie.

But perhaps it wasn’t as much of a lie as he thought.

~~~~~

It was a surprise when Sock showed up for work on Monday.

“I didn’t think you were going to come in,” Jonathan said.  He avoided looking his way as Sock set up his things.  “I’m really sorry about Saturday night.  I didn’t mean to push you into anything.”

“That wasn’t the problem,” Sock muttered.  He moved over to the worktable rubbing together his gloved hands.  “I wanted to, but I was –”

“Scared?”  Jonathan knew that feeling.

Sock chuckled weakly.  “Y-Yeah, that’s it.”

They worked together to fix the android that was set up on the table, reconnecting wires and welding together loose pieces of metal.  As their day carried on, Jonathan decided to speak up about the incident with the truck.

“Sock?”

He hummed to acknowledge him, his eyes still focused on the task at hand.

“What… What happened in the road that night?  What did you do?”

Sock slammed his screwdriver on the table, sighing.  “If I tell you, everything is going to change.”

“Nothing is going to change.”

“I’m not who you think I am.”

“I think I get to decide that.”

He yanked off his goggles, throwing them onto the android with a frustrated grunt.  He wrung his hands together, the thick material of his gloves making rough scratching noises that filled the silence of the room.  “Jonathan,” he said in a low voice.  He turned to the mentioned man and held out his hands, palms facing up.  Jonathan moved to grab them with his own, and Sock slowly slipped his hands from his work gloves.  “I’m… not a real human.”

Jonathan was afraid to look down.  He darted his eyes towards Sock’s bare hands, a sharp breath being taken when he took in the sight.

His skin was horribly scraped up, the skin peeling every which way.  But there was no blood; only cold, hard metal that had barely been scuffed.

“Are… are you a cyborg?” Jonathan asked.

“Try again,” Sock said with a weak smile.  “A little less… human.”

It was impossible.  But there was only one other option.

“You’re an android.”

“Bingo.”

“There’s no way,” Jonathan said in disbelief.  “You’re joking.  You’re joking, right?”

Sock shook his head.  “I wish I was,” he mumbled.

“That doesn’t make any sense.  Androids were never made to be _this_ human-like.  They were always created to be simple, derivative, repetitive –”

“Inferior?” Sock finished with a bitter laugh.  “That’s why there’s only one of me.  Too many and we would’ve taken over the human race.  Or at least, that’s what _they_ thought.”

Jonathan’s eyes widened.  “You’re the only one?”

“Yep, the one and only.  Turns out people don’t like to be outdone by their own creations.”

“So, why were you created if _they_ thought it was a bad idea?” Jonathan asked.  “And who are _they_ anyways?

“It’s a long story,” Sock said meekly.

They turned back to the android on the work table.  Jonathan frowned, not too eager to return to his job.  But maybe he could do it a different way.

“We’ve got time,” he said.  “Tell me everything.”

“Seriously?  It’s, uh, kind of personal.”

“Yeah, I figured,” Jonathan admitted.  “I’m not too good at this ‘touchy-feely’ stuff, but I want you to trust me.”  He reached out to touch Sock’s hand, curling his fingers around the combination of torn faux flesh and cold titanium.  “I mean, it’s my job to help androids, and right now, I want to help you.”

Sock tightened his fingers around Jonathan’s hand, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.  He let out a nervous chuckle.  “I’ve never talked about this before.  But there’s a first for everything, right?”

~~~~~

It began twenty-three years ago.  Androids had been around for ages, but personalized ones were relatively new.  Before, androids were used to perform minimal tasks such as vacuuming, washing the dishes, mopping the floors.  Now, they were able to do so much more.  They could do almost all the basic chores in the house: sweeping and dusting, doing the laundry and hanging the clothes, even cooking a variety of nutritious meals.  They were full-time maids for a one-time purchase fee.  And the best part: they weren’t human.

Androids couldn’t complain.  They didn’t need to be taken care of.  They didn’t need to be paid.  They were perfect for what they were made to do.  But that didn’t stop people from trying to improve them further.

What was the next step in improving perfection?  What could one do to make a seemingly flawless invention even more flawless?  The answer was incredibly ironic.

By giving them flaws, they said.  By making them human.

The public didn’t fare well to the news.  When articles and journals came out discussing plans to make a human-like android, people revolted.  They despised the idea.  The people claimed that it would taint their society.  Mingling humans with robots, the two living as equals.  Androids were meant to serve.  They weren’t meant to _be_ served.

They shut down the project.  Or at least the public thought so.

In secret, Project Genesis began.  A large team belonging to one of the biggest android production companies the world had ever known.  They had fame, money, reputation.  They had developed the perfect droid.  But they wanted more.

They wanted to create the perfect artificial human.

In the end, there were six attempted experimental subjects.  Five were failures.  The sixth was exactly what they had wanted.

Subject one had issues with skin grafting.  Of course, they couldn’t use real skin grafts, so synthetic skin was the only way to go.  Unfortunately, the synthetic skin used on cyborg parts didn’t work so well.  Androids heated up more than cyborgs due to the entire system being run at once.  A cyborg only had a few robotic parts that worked in tandem with the human body.  An android was on its own.  The synthetic skin melted over the metal body.  It seeped into the cracks and destroyed some of the inner-workings of the droid, and it was deemed unsalvageable.

The second subject had the proper look for a human.  Instead of creating a new synthetic skin that could withstand the heat of the android’s running systems, the metal and wiring were slimmed down to cut back on bulk.  They created a metal skeleton that was armored with fake muscle as insulation, which was then covered in the synthetic skin.  It worked like a charm and their new human android was finally starting to take shape.  If only it started acting correctly.  When coding its personality chip to include more human emotions, it fried its circuits and set the whole skeleton aflame.  Its parts were scrapped and reused.

Subject three was where they tested human functions such as physical touch and food digestion.  Touch was simple; they took the touch sensors already installed in other androids and made it more intricate.  They created sets of nerves and weaved them through the muscle and skin.  Giving the android the ability to ingest food was tricky, but not impossible.  They formed a synthetic stomach with acid to digest food.  The waste was filtered and could be disposed of like a real human, though it wasn’t exactly the same.  The process was a little messier, but it worked.  When making some minor adjustments to the digestive system, the acid was leaked and caused damage to some critical wiring.  Instead of fixing it, the android was considered a lost cause because it still had plenty of issues with its personality.  Combined, it was more trouble to fix than it was worth.

By subject four, their creation could pass off as a human if not for its personality, which lacked in depth.  It was soon able to mimic human behavior such as humor, courtesy, and empathy, but mimicry was all it could do.  The android felt no attachment to the people it met.  It didn’t care.  It only acted like it did.  With lots of tweaking and reprogramming, it became slightly better, being able to display genuine concern for others.  But, still, it had its issues.  It became _too_ emotional.  It wouldn’t listen to reason.  It didn’t act on logic.  It wouldn’t learn.  It trusted too easily, it was let down at every little mishap, it preferred to act on its artificial heart rather than its computer brain.  It wasn’t too much of a problem until someone got upset and told the android to decommission itself.  The poor thing was so emotionally distraught that it actually went through with it.  The remains were found the next day with a goodbye letter in its left hand and its CPU in its right.

When it came to subject five, they thought they had finally nailed the creation process.  The droid looked as real as any human, it displayed appropriate emotions and developed its own opinions, it would learn from its mistakes and actively try to fix them.  They were almost perfect, except for one small flaw.

It was obedient.  It couldn’t deny orders.  They did everything they were told, and it was excruciating.  The only order it wouldn’t follow was to disobey.  The constant order to stop listening was too much for the droid to process, and it went mad.  It couldn’t understand the contradiction.  Like its predecessor, it committed suicide and jumped into the trash compactor.

With the sixth subject, they tapped into the android’s personality settings and manually lowered its obedience level.  It was a finnicky thing to do; too low, and the android might revolt and hurt someone.  Too high, and they would end up with a copy of subject five.  The android needed to be able to follow orders, but decide for itself whether it was worth following.  It was given a choice to obey or disobey.  It was given freedom.

Subject six, the Sowachowski Humanoid, named after the original inventor of androids.  Sowachowski had begun a revolution with the creation of the first android, and now, the Sowachowski Humanoid was the beginning of a new age of androids.

It began as a mere assistant in the manufacturing company.  It watched how other androids were built, it was taught the secrets of the craft, it was treated as any other person may be.  It learned from what it saw, it attempted to help in the manual assembly of typical droids.  It interacted with the other workers, and quite successfully, too.  It was amicable, it was intelligent, it was beautiful.

It was too perfect.

Soon, the humanoid began to surpass the human workers.  It could solve problems quicker than any human could.  It performed complex math equations in its head using an internal calculator.  It moved at inhumane rates and did not become fatigued.  The people who were its creators – its _friends_ – turned on it.  They realized it was a horrible idea to have constructed such a unique and independent droid.  They scheduled to have it demolished.

It didn’t agree.

When plans of its decommission spread, it ran away.  It was given the chance to be like a real person – a human.  It was allowed to learn and grow.  It was able to make decisions for itself without having to follow orders.  It was free, and it wanted to stay that way.

Of course, they couldn’t stop it, though they tried their best.  It was difficult without being able to alert the news.  The project was done in secret, so they couldn’t let the public know that they had gone through with it.  They were on their own.

Nothing worked in their favor.  They were outsmarted, out run – it was superior in almost every way.  It snuck away and somehow found itself hundreds of miles away in a distant town.  A small one, but that was preferred.  The less people, the better.

It was passing through a neighborhood one day, attempting to lay low and avoid more crowded places.  On its walk, it passed by a couple sitting in silence outside their home.  They were garmented in all black, carrying a bundle of flowers.  The wife was in tears, sobbing loudly as her husband tried to calm her.

The humanoid approached them and asked what was wrong.  It knew it was risky to speak to anyone, but it hurt to see someone in pain.  It was the first time it had witnessed crying.  Before, it had only heard of the action.

It was not built with the capability of crying.  Crying was deemed useless; there was no enjoyment or benefit in crying.  The only thing to gain were puffy red eyes and dripping noses.  Crying was intentionally left out of its blueprints.

The couple had lost its infant son.  He was less than a year old when he passed due to a genetic disease.  The odds of having other children with the same disease were almost one-hundred percent.  The couple couldn’t bear to part with the child, so they buried him in the backyard after the funeral.

It apologized.  It told them that they had lost something, too.  They asked what.

“My friends.  My family.  Everyone that I thought cared about me.  I have no one.”

The couple was appalled.  They asked what happened to its parents.  It told them it had none.  They asked where it came from.  It said a laboratory, a factory, a cancelled experiment.  They asked what he was.  It said he was not one of them.

It told them everything.  It told them the truth.

It hadn’t yet learned to lie.

They took it in.  They didn’t care that it was made of metal and wires; they saw it as a lost child in place of a new home.  They saw it as a gift from the heavens, a reincarnation of their deceased son, an angel sent from above.  They named it after their child, and _he_ became Napoleon Maxwell Sowachowski.

No one knew about him.  He was their little secret, and they kept him safe from the outside world.  If anyone figured out who he really was, he was bound to be destroyed.  They told him that no one could know about his past.  They advised him not to trust anyone.  They only wanted to protect him, because they couldn’t lose another one.

He was okay with his life.  He was loved and respected.  He didn’t have the freedom to go wherever he pleased, but it was a small price to pay for his life.  He was happy with the home he shared with his parents.  He enjoyed helping his mother plant flowers in the garden, late at night so no one could see.  He looked forward to the days where he and his father would build different things in the garage, away from prying eyes.

But all good things must end.  He wanted more.  He wanted to be free from the confines of his house, just for one moment.  While both parents were at work, he wandered to the backyard.  He was idly watching some birds bounce around in the birdbath when he saw a squirrel scurry down from a tree.

It was small with a bushy tail.  Its movements were quick and animated.  He stared at the squirrel with interest, his eyes cold and calculating as they predicted the creature’s movements.

Killing the squirrel turned out to be an easier task than he thought.

His parents weren’t so pleased.  The gruesome task was concerning, but it wasn’t their biggest priority.  They told him not to go outside like that again, or else he would risk getting caught.  His life was more important than a little squirrel’s.

He listened to them, but something seemed off.  Killing the squirrel was the most exhilarating thing he had felt since escaping from factory lab where he was created.  There was something fascinating about breaking rules and disobeying orders.  No wonder some humans chose to disregard the law.

Life was just a game.  People played it by doing everything right, but the real fun came when they did everything wrong.

He wanted to feel that rush again.  He wanted the satisfaction of another small kill.  Just a little animal would do.  He only needed to hold that knife in his hand one more time.

Eventually, he got what he wanted.

Against his parents’ wishes, he went outside again.  For his second kill, he shot a robin out of a tree with a homemade slingshot.  It wasn’t as fun as slicing the bird with a blade, though he decided to do that after.

He thought that was it, all he needed to quench his desires, but he was sorely mistaken.

One time turned to two.  Two turned to three.  Three to four.  It continued until he made his last two kills, and the biggest regrets he would ever have.

It was after dinner and he was helping clean up the table with his parents.  They were having fun, talking and doing the dishes together as they prepared for bed.  He snuck a knife from the table to replace the ones he had already taken – their blades were becoming dull and he needed a new one.  His parents bid him good night and retired to their quarters.

He went outside and killed a raccoon rummaging through their trash.  He cradled it in his arms when he entered the house again.

Unfortunately, he ran into his mother, who had gotten up to get some water.  She was appalled at the fact that he had gone outside without telling her, and even more so at the dead animal he had brought with him into their home.  His father entered the living room when he heard the noise and was equally alarmed.

They lectured him about the dangers of going outside without their knowledge.  They disciplined him about at how it was wrong to kill innocent creatures in the backyard.  They yelled at him for stealing their kitchen knives for such nefarious purposes.

They were only being his parents, but something in him snapped.

It was as if his android side had taken over and gone into autopilot.  His defensive systems kicked in – not to protect others, but to protect _himself_.  He sensed them as a threat.  He saw them as an enemy.  He thought they were just the same as everyone else.

Somehow, it ended with the knife through both of them and him burying their corpses by their real son out back.  He built makeshift headstones for them marked ‘Mom’ and ‘Dad’.

It wasn’t until immediately after the deed was done and he had the chance to relax that he realized the mistake he made. 

He killed the only two people he truly loved, and he couldn’t even cry for them.  He wasn’t the angel they thought he was, not even close.

He covered his tracks well; he didn’t possess any organic material, so identification shouldn’t be an issue.  People didn’t know they had a son, so no one would suspect him.

He could run away.  He could start a new life.  He could live without loving anyone ever again.  Then, maybe, he wouldn’t hurt anyone.  And more importantly, he wouldn’t _be_ hurt.

That was wishful thinking.  Despite all his flaws, he was cursed to love.

~~~~~

“So, you’re the one who committed that murder from months ago,” Jonathan realized.  “The double-homicide that was never solved.”

Sock remained silent, tapping his fingers together uncomfortably.

“Well, you got my friend Jojo really stressed out with that.  She was driving herself crazy trying to solve that case.”  He laughed nervously, the tension being so thick he felt like he was suffocating.

“You’re probably going to turn me in now,” Sock said quietly.  His face was ridden with anxiety, as if fearing what Jonathan would say next.  “I wouldn’t blame you.  I’ve caused enough trouble already.”

“I’m not going to do that to you,” he said adamantly.

Sock looked up at him in surprise and relief.  There were no words to express how grateful he was.

Jonathan scratched the back of his head.  “I know I probably should, but I don’t think I can force myself to have you turned in.”

“Why?”

“Because,” Jonathan said, his voice shaking, “I think I love you.”

“I was afraid to love someone again,” Sock said with a small smile, “since the first time turned out so badly.  But, I guess I can’t help it.”

He leaned forward to hug Jonathan, wrapping his thin arms around his warm body.  Sock nuzzled his face into Jonathan’s neck, his wild brown hair rubbing against his skin.  Jonathan pulled him closer and rubbed soothing circles on his back.  Neither of them wanted to let go.

“Hey,” Jonathan began in a soft voice, not wanting to disturb the peace, “do you know if they’re still looking for you?  Are you still in danger?”

“No,” Sock said calmly.  “They gave up that search ages ago.  When I finally destroyed the tracking device they installed in me, they lost their best chance of finding me.”

“Oh, well that’s good.  Seems like Project Genesis was a bust.”

Sock pulled back slightly to look at Jonathan in the eyes.  “Wait, did I forget to mention what happened with Project Genesis?”

He was confused.  “You said it was a failure and shut itself down, right?  That’s why they wanted to destroy you.”

“That’s not all that they did.”  There was a mischievous glint in his eyes that sent a chill down Jonathan’s spine.  “The project was such a mistake that they changed the name.  It’s not Project Genesis anymore.”

“Then what is it?”

“The Demon Project.”

“Why is it called that?”

Sock burst into a fit of giggles, his voice both alarming and unnerving.  Jonathan would be lying if he said he wasn’t at least a bit worried.

“ _Because everything went to hell_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, one more chapter left which will go more into Jonathan's life and tie up most of the loose ends. I have a feeling the last one is going to be the longest but we'll see. I'll try to finish in about a week so it'll be up soon (hopefully). Let me know what you think so far bc I really appreciate any feedback! <3


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